A CLASSIC HORROR DOUBLE FEATURE,
AND THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW
with special guest patricia quinn
HOUSTON (August 19, 2024) – The Houston Symphony is celebrating Halloween this year with two special concert movie events guaranteed to get everyone in the spirit of the holiday.
Friday, October 25, 2024 at 7 p.m. in Jones Hall, the Symphony is screening a classic horror double feature: the silent films The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), and The Phantom of the Opera (1925), starring Lon Chaney. Both films are being screened solely with the musical accompaniment of organist/conductor/arranger Brett Miller, who specializes in the art of silent movie accompaniment.
Directed by Robert Weine, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is considered one of the greatest films of the silent era. It tells the macabre tale of the deranged director of a mental hospital, who uses hypnotism to commit murders. Long before M. Night Shyamalan, this film pioneered the twist ending for filmgoers.
The second half of this frightening double-bill is Lon Chaney’s classic performance in the title role of Rupert Julian’s The Phantom of the Opera. Based on the Gaston Leroux novel of the same name (as is Andrew Lloyd Webber’s mega-hit musical, also of the same name), this film tells the tale of a mysterious Phantom that haunts the Paris Opera House, taking an obsessive interest in a young singer that leads to tragic consequences. The great Lon Chaney, known as “The Man of a Thousand Faces,” stars in the title role.
Saturday, October 26, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. in Jones Hall, the Symphony presents the cult hit movie musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show, with special guest Patricia Quinn, who stars in the movie in the role of Magenta. Beginning in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s, this 1975 musical spoof of classic horror tropes took on a life of its own as it gained a worldwide cult following, spawning midnight screenings and inspiring many generations to do the “Time Warp” for decades to come.
While this film screening doesn’t involve the symphony orchestra, instead it’s hosted by Magenta herself, Patricia Quinn, and features a live “shadow cast” to enliven the proceedings, as well as a Rocky Horror-themed afterparty for all ticketholders. Special VIP seating is now available that includes a Meet-and-Greet event with Patricia Quinn on the night of the screening. There’s also a costume contest, so come dressed as your favorite Rocky Horror character and join in the fun!
Both of these screenings take place at Jones Hall for the Performing Arts, 615 Louisiana Street, in Houston’s Theater District. For tickets and information about both performances, including the Rocky Horror VIP Seating and Meet-and-Greet with Patricia Quinn, please call or text 713.224.7575 or visit houstonsymphony.org. Tickets may also be purchased at the Houston Symphony Patron Services Center in Jones Hall (Monday–Saturday, 12–6 p.m.). All programs and artists are subject to change.
About Brett Miller
As one of the youngest in a rare art form, Brett Miller is an active organist, conductor, and arranger who specializes in the art of silent film accompaniment. As an award-winning organist, Brett has continued his academic involvement and advocacy for the education and preservation of silent films through performing “live to picture.” In 2021, he was appointed music director of the Empire Film and Media Ensemble, a non-profit based in Rochester, New York, that advocates for the education, performance, and production of film music. He was recently appointed artistic director of the organization. Brett shares a close relationship between the ensemble and the Beal Institute of Film Contemporary Media at the Eastman School of Music.
His recent scores have been recorded with organizations such as the Eye Film museum, the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Foundation, Kino Lober Classics, and Milestone Films. He has been featured at various film festivals and has played events in conjunction with film preservationists from the Library of Congress and George Eastman House. In 2023, Brett played to a sold-out performance of Nosferatu at Marian Anderson Hall in conjunction with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Season highlights include performances for the Houston Symphony, The Boston Pops, The Great Auditorium at Ocean Grove, Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall, and the Historic Colonial Theater.
Brett studied organ with renowned organist Jelani Eddington and piano with Beth Crompton and Joseph Rackers of the Eastman School of Music. He studied film accompaniment with Ben Model and Bernie Anderson. A native of Bedminster, Pennsylvania, Brett is an alumnus of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra Institute. He currently studies at the Eastman School of Music pursuing his masters in orchestral conducting with Neil Varon.
About Patricia Quinn
Patricia Quinn, Lady Stephens (born 28 May 1944) is an actress and singer from Northern Ireland.
She is best known for her role as Magenta in the 1975 film The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and the original stage play from which it was adapted. She appeared as Dr. Nation McKinley in the 1981 film Shock Treatment. In 2012, Quinn played the role of Megan in The Lords of Salem.
Quinn was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to James Connolly Quinn, a bookmaker, and his wife Rebecca. She attended the Princess Gardens Grammar School, where she developed an early talent for acting. Following stints at Belfast’s Arts Theatre and British Drama League, she left for London aged 17. In 1969, she trained at the Drama Centre London while simultaneously working as a blackjack-dealing Bunny at the Playboy Club in Mayfair. In 1971, she was in repertory for six months with the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow.
Quinn is known primarily for her role as Magenta in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). In the film’s opening title sequence, the movements of her disembodied lips are synchronised with the lyrics of the title song, “Science Fiction/Double Feature” (the singing voice is that of scriptwriter and actor Richard O’Brien). She played Elizabeth Siddal in the 1975 miniseries The Love School. In I, Claudius (1976), she took the role of the Emperor Claudius’s sister Livilla. She also played Isla in The Professionals episode “Look After Annie” in 1978. Her other film and TV roles include the semi- sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Shock Treatment. She played “Woman” in Hawk the Slayer (1980). She appeared in the Hammer House of Horror episode “Witching Time” as Lucinda Jessop (1981), Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (1983), and the 1987 Doctor Who serial Dragonfire. Her latest film credit is Rob Zombie’s The Lords of Salem (2012).
In 2000, Quinn recorded the song “Guts To Dream” with London-based band The Grand. The song was due to form part of an EP titled “Open Displays of Affection,” but the group had disbanded before it was released. Quinn gave a copy of the unreleased CD to the winner of a Magenta costume contest at The Rocky Horror Picture Show 25th Anniversary Convention in Las Vegas.
In 2002, she returned to “Doctor Who,” playing an alien queen in the audio play Bang-Bang-a-Boom!. In September 2006, she relaunched her career as a DJ and club kitten, hosting the monthly “ClubMyra” night at various venues in Central London. In April 2007, she joined Patrick Wolf at a concert in London, singing “Accident and Emergency.”
In October 2008, Quinn made a guest appearance in a production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show in New York City, participating in a question-and-answer session as well as unexpectedly performing “Science Fiction/Double Feature.” She attended a Rocky Horror Picture Show convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey in July 2011, answering questions as well as introducing a performance of the show, staged at the House of Blues. In May 2013, she served as the honorary Master of Ceremonies for a Rocky Horror Picture Show performance at the Dallas-based Texas Frightmare Weekend horror convention. That same month, she was the guest of honor at a 40th Anniversary Tribute Concert to the original Rocky Horror Show stage production, hosted at the Victoria Theatre in San Francisco, California by local drag celebrity Peaches Christ. During the tribute conference, Quinn performed “Science Fiction/Double Feature,” answered questions on stage with Christ, and signed autographs for the audience.
Quinn has a son, Quinn Hawkins, from her first marriage, to Don Hawkins. Her nephews are Jonny Quinn and Bradley Quinn, Jonny is the drummer of the alternative rock band Snow Patrol, and Bradley the photographer.
In January 1995, Quinn married the actor Sir Robert Stephens, who died in November that year. Quinn thus became the stepmother of Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin, Stephens’ two actor sons from his previous marriage to Maggie Smith. Quinn had previously appeared alongside Sir Robert in the BBC TV adaptation of The Box of Delights (1984) in the role of Sylvia Daisy Pouncer, and had played his on-screen wife in the serial Fortunes of War (1987). The elder Stephens had been knighted prior to his death, giving Quinn the title of Lady Stephens.
About the Houston Symphony
Under Music Director Juraj Valčuha, the Houston Symphony continues its second century inspiring and engaging a large and diverse audience in Houston and beyond through exceptional musical performances, and creating enduring impact in the Houston community. One of the oldest performing arts organizations in Texas, the Symphony held its inaugural performance at The Majestic Theater in downtown Houston on June 21, 1913. Today, with an operating budget of $40.7 million, the full-time ensemble of professional musicians presents more than 130 concerts annually, making it the largest performing arts organization in Houston. Traditionally, musicians of the orchestra and the Symphony’s Community-Embedded Musicians also offer over 1,000 community-based performances each year at various schools, community centers, hospitals, and churches, annually reaching more than 200,000 people in Greater Houston.
After suspending concert activities in March 2020, the Symphony successfully completed a full 2020–21 season with in-person audiences and weekly livestreams of each performance, making it one of the only orchestras in the world to do so. The Houston Symphony remains committed to livestreaming its 2024-25 Season to a broad audience in over forty-five countries and all 50 states, one of few American orchestras dedicated to transmitting live performances to a sizeable audience outside its home city through this technology. The Grammy Award-winning Houston Symphony has recorded under various prestigious labels, including Koch International Classics, Naxos, RCA Red Seal, Telarc, Virgin Classics, and, most recently, Dutch recording label Pentatone. In 2017, the Houston Symphony was awarded an ECHO Klassik award for the live recording of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck under the direction of former Music Director Hans Graf. The orchestra earned its first Grammy nomination and Grammy Award at the 60th annual ceremony for the same recording in the Best Opera Recording category. The Symphony’s most recent recordings include a Pentatone release in January 2022 of its world premiere performances of Jimmy López Bellido’s Aurora and Ad Astra, and a Naxos release in July 2023 of its world premiere performance of Jennifer Higdon’s Duo Duel.
